Sentry Investment Management LLC increased its stake in salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM) by 7.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 50,249 shares of the CRM provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,619 shares during the period. Sentry Investment Management LLC’s holdings in salesforce.com were worth $7,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. One Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of salesforce.com in the 3rd quarter valued at about $212,000. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY boosted its holdings in shares of salesforce.com by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 142,379 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $19,420,000 after buying an additional 5,892 shares in the last quarter. First Heartland Consultants Inc. bought a new stake in shares of salesforce.com in the 2nd quarter valued at about $284,000. Polaris Greystone Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of salesforce.com in the 3rd quarter valued at about $220,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP boosted its holdings in shares of salesforce.com by 33.0% in the 2nd quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 679,162 shares of the CRM provider’s stock valued at $92,638,000 after buying an additional 168,500 shares in the last quarter. 83.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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In other salesforce.com news, Chairman Marc Benioff sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $137.58, for a total transaction of $687,900.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Keith Block sold 2,160 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.61, for a total transaction of $308,037.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 23,836 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,399,251.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have acquired 18,000 shares of company stock valued at $2,703,900 and have sold 503,678 shares valued at $75,870,740. Company insiders own 6.00% of the company’s stock.

CRM opened at $136.92 on Friday. salesforce.com, inc. has a 12-month low of $98.68 and a 12-month high of $161.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market cap of $107.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 304.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.66 and a beta of 1.38.

salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 29th. The CRM provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.24. salesforce.com had a net margin of 6.45% and a return on equity of 8.27%. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.23 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. salesforce.com’s revenue for the quarter was up 27.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that salesforce.com, inc. will post 1.22 EPS for the current year.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CRM shares. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of salesforce.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of salesforce.com from $147.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of salesforce.com from $168.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 30th. Piper Jaffray Companies restated a “buy” rating on shares of salesforce.com in a report on Thursday, August 30th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of salesforce.com from $165.00 to $174.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 15th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. The company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $166.41.

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About salesforce.com

salesforce.com, inc. develops enterprise cloud computing solutions with a focus on customer relationship management. The company offers Sales Cloud to store data, monitor leads and progress, forecast opportunities, and gain insights through analytics and relationship intelligence, as well as deliver quotes, contracts, and invoices.